Water

Business & Economics

More regulators is the wrong fix

The BP oil spill has prompted calls for more federal regulatory power. Yet the behavior of the federal bureaucrats who were supposed to prevent this type of disaster provides no reason to expect better outcomes with more bureaucracy. The Minerals Management Service was the Interior Department agency responsible for regulation ...
Commentary

Less bang for education bucks

California’s public education establishment continually argues that the state ranks near the bottom in funding K-12 education. A just-released study by the U.S. Census Bureau pokes a giant hole in these claims. Those trying to portray California as miserly when it comes to education funding often cite figures put out ...
Climate Change

Why the Going is Tough for High-Cost Legislation on Climate Change

Vol.4 No.7: July 19, 2010 Why the Going is Tough for High-Cost Legislation on Climate Change By Amy Kaleita, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies, Pacific Research Institute For those favoring legislation on climate change, these should be the best of times. The Democrats, typically the party of the greens, ...
California

Pensions are S.F.’s other golden gate

SACRAMENTO – I’d been starting to wonder about whether there are any true progressives left in California, until I heard about Jeff Adachi, San Francisco’s public defender. Many people describe themselves as progressive, mind you, but few seem to embody the core principles of a movement that is supposed to ...
California

Should The State Decide How Many Nurses a Hospital Must Hire?

Under ObamaCare, those who believe the government should decide how much medical care you deserve, and how it should be delivered, are eager to impose their preferences nationwide. Nurses’ unions lead the charge, armed with a recent study that could use more examination than it is getting from politicians and ...
Business & Economics

Oil Producers’ Liability Should Not Be Unlimited

Everyone loves a villain. And with the Deepwater Horizon disaster at the two-month mark, the love knows no bounds, uniting much of the political-media complex in a sticky goo of opportunism, finger-pointing and phony demands for apologies. That BP–having schmoozed the environmental left for years while compiling a dreadful safety ...
Business & Economics

What an economist learned in Haiti

I recently spent a week in Haiti helping with reconstruction efforts. I volunteered only as someone with two hands and a lot of Gatorade, but my professional background as an economist allowed me to diagnose some of Haiti’s problems. These go much deeper than the earthquake. I registered with the ...
Business & Economics

‘Government involvement’ never leads to lowered prices

After almost a month of repairs, the K.R. Har­ring­ton Water Treat­ment Plant is back in oper­a­tion. Nashville res­i­dents can bathe and wash dishes nor­mally. Now that the cri­sis has passed, it is use­ful to reflect on the eco­nomic lessons of gov­ern­ment pric­ing and rationing. Let’s start with the basic facts. ...
Climate Change

Report Card for the IPCC

The nation’s capital has been slammed with storms this winter, and so has the climate-change debate. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) is now attempting to dig out from a scandal that policy makers and ordinary citizens alike will find instructive. In November, emails from the Climate Research Unit ...
California

Voters, not leaders, confront Vallejo’s mess

Two years after Vallejo made history as the first city in the Golden State to file for bankruptcy, voters have grasped the city’s dire financial situation even if some members of local government haven’t. Residents appeared to have approved Measure A by a slim margin last week. The vote count ...
Business & Economics

More regulators is the wrong fix

The BP oil spill has prompted calls for more federal regulatory power. Yet the behavior of the federal bureaucrats who were supposed to prevent this type of disaster provides no reason to expect better outcomes with more bureaucracy. The Minerals Management Service was the Interior Department agency responsible for regulation ...
Commentary

Less bang for education bucks

California’s public education establishment continually argues that the state ranks near the bottom in funding K-12 education. A just-released study by the U.S. Census Bureau pokes a giant hole in these claims. Those trying to portray California as miserly when it comes to education funding often cite figures put out ...
Climate Change

Why the Going is Tough for High-Cost Legislation on Climate Change

Vol.4 No.7: July 19, 2010 Why the Going is Tough for High-Cost Legislation on Climate Change By Amy Kaleita, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies, Pacific Research Institute For those favoring legislation on climate change, these should be the best of times. The Democrats, typically the party of the greens, ...
California

Pensions are S.F.’s other golden gate

SACRAMENTO – I’d been starting to wonder about whether there are any true progressives left in California, until I heard about Jeff Adachi, San Francisco’s public defender. Many people describe themselves as progressive, mind you, but few seem to embody the core principles of a movement that is supposed to ...
California

Should The State Decide How Many Nurses a Hospital Must Hire?

Under ObamaCare, those who believe the government should decide how much medical care you deserve, and how it should be delivered, are eager to impose their preferences nationwide. Nurses’ unions lead the charge, armed with a recent study that could use more examination than it is getting from politicians and ...
Business & Economics

Oil Producers’ Liability Should Not Be Unlimited

Everyone loves a villain. And with the Deepwater Horizon disaster at the two-month mark, the love knows no bounds, uniting much of the political-media complex in a sticky goo of opportunism, finger-pointing and phony demands for apologies. That BP–having schmoozed the environmental left for years while compiling a dreadful safety ...
Business & Economics

What an economist learned in Haiti

I recently spent a week in Haiti helping with reconstruction efforts. I volunteered only as someone with two hands and a lot of Gatorade, but my professional background as an economist allowed me to diagnose some of Haiti’s problems. These go much deeper than the earthquake. I registered with the ...
Business & Economics

‘Government involvement’ never leads to lowered prices

After almost a month of repairs, the K.R. Har­ring­ton Water Treat­ment Plant is back in oper­a­tion. Nashville res­i­dents can bathe and wash dishes nor­mally. Now that the cri­sis has passed, it is use­ful to reflect on the eco­nomic lessons of gov­ern­ment pric­ing and rationing. Let’s start with the basic facts. ...
Climate Change

Report Card for the IPCC

The nation’s capital has been slammed with storms this winter, and so has the climate-change debate. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) is now attempting to dig out from a scandal that policy makers and ordinary citizens alike will find instructive. In November, emails from the Climate Research Unit ...
California

Voters, not leaders, confront Vallejo’s mess

Two years after Vallejo made history as the first city in the Golden State to file for bankruptcy, voters have grasped the city’s dire financial situation even if some members of local government haven’t. Residents appeared to have approved Measure A by a slim margin last week. The vote count ...
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